The ENHANCER project was completed with a demo-day.

The Demo-Day and Closing Event of the ENHANCER project, of which HKU is the executive, was held on Monday, October 24, 2022 with wide participation.

The closing meeting of the project “Development of Infrastructure for New Product Development and Establishment of Mentor Bridge” implemented by HKU within the scope of the Financial Assistance Program for Refugees in Turkey (FRIT) – ENHANCER Project funded by the EU and carried out in coordination with the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Turkey, and Silk Road Development Agency (IKA) was held. The event was attended by HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli, Silkroad Development Agency (ICA) Secretary General Dr. Burhan Akyılmaz and ICMPD/Enhancer Project Migration and Development Portfolio Manager Pınar Yapanoğlu gave the opening speeches.

IN THE LAST 3 YEARS, 39 R&D PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SIGNED BETWEEN OUR UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS.

Making the opening speech of the program, HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli: “Hasan Kalyoncu University; Thanks to its different R&D units and Teknokent, it has a significant industrial cooperation potential. Within the scope of the activities carried out by our university in the field of industrial cooperation, more than 40 companies were established by students and academicians at the Incubation Center, and “Startup Capital” was provided to 15 of them from different institutions. A total of 156 patent applications were made by students and academicians, 16 of them were registered and 5 of them were commercialized. A total of 47 official R&D and software projects were carried out by entrepreneurs in the Organized Industrial Zone Technokent. In the last 3 years, a total of 39 R&D projects have been signed between our university and industrial establishments. Academicians of our university took part in projects with a total budget of 9 million 460 thousand TL. At the Kalyon Garaj Prototyping and Entrepreneurship Center, prototyping support is provided for SMEs, academics and our students. With the project implemented in ENHANCER program, Kalyon Garage infrastructure has been strengthened with new machinery and software. With the pilot call opened in the project, applications were received from SMEs and Entrepreneurs, and business plan preparation support for new product ideas was also provided by mentors trained in our project. In this way, business plans for new products have been prepared and commercialization will be ensured by producing them with the most accurate method. Thanks to the infrastructure we have strengthened within the scope of the project, the continuation of the pilot application that we have successfully implemented is planned and our cooperation with the real sector will increasingly continue,” and thanked all stakeholders, especially ICMPD and Silkroad Development Agency, who contributed to the implementation of the ENHANCER project.

WE MADE A GRANT CONTRIBUTION TO OUR 109 GRANT BENEFICIARIES.

Providing information about ICMPD, ICMPD/ENHANCER Grant Manager Pınar Yapanoğlu said: “It carries out activities in order to improve the capacity of the actors of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the provinces within the scope of the Enhancer project. In particular, it aims to strengthen cooperation between these actors. Within the scope of the activities, we attach importance to the grant activity in the content of the project for the establishment of common use facilities. The budget of the project is 32.5 million Euros. 17 million Euros is reserved for grant projects. The project aims to empower especially chambers of commerce, universities, technoparks, SMEs, cooperatives and personal entrepreneurs as users with grants. We have made grant contributions to approximately 109 grant beneficiaries so far. In our project, which we have closed today, a budget of 250 thousand Euros has been transferred from our Enhancer project budget,” and conveyed his thanks to everyone who contributed to the project.

WE CAN ACHIEVE THEORY AND PRACTICE TOGETHER.

İpekyolu Development Agency General Secretary Dr. Burhan Akyılmaz said: “In order to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Gaziantep and the region, such projects need to be done much more. As İpekyolu Development Agency, we have carried out many activities to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem of our region. When the steps you will take to commercialize the ideas developed by valuable entrepreneurs in this ecosystem, mentors and incubation centers that will support this process come together, we have started to see more result-oriented studies.” said.

Following the opening speeches, Deniz Ventures Ecosystem Explorer Ahmet Yasin Acar made a presentation on “Entrepreneur ecosystem and investor perspective in Turkey”. In the program, representatives of SMEs benefiting from the project also made their presentations.

After presenting a gift to the speakers in the memory of the day, the program ended with a group photo shoot.